Two questions about GREEN.

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taylorkh

Senior Member
Please pardon me if I should have posted this in the D3400 sub-forum but I suspect that it might be a generic issue. As I described in the new member introduction I have recently purchased a D3400 and am testing it by taking pictures of all sorts of stuff for my insurance inventory. A good workout for the camera. At the moment I am experimenting with the built in programs - not manual mode. As to my first "green" question...

I took a picture of a small handgun with a dark green plastic grip frame. I had the camera set to the closeup program with the flash on. The "kit" 18 - 55 lens is set to 55. The green appears BLACK both on the camera's screen and when I load it to my computer (Dell Ultrasharp monitor). If I back off the distance and the lens to say 55 it appears to be a little more green. However, I cannot get a green closeup with the actual focus area being about 8" x 10".

I turned the flash off and took the picture using the 4000K LED lighting in the room (from a tripod). This image does appear green - at least a lot better than with the flash.

My second green question... My living subject (victim) of the camera is my dog. Animals do not experience "red eye" but rather green eye. The camera's red eye retouch function does not recognize green eye so if till not of course correct it. The red eye reduction mode of the flash does seem to help so I guess that is the best I can do on the camera. Looks like post processing on the computer is the only real option to clean up green eye. Am I right?

And a third question if I may... Does someone know where I can obtain a "test pattern" so to speak with a range of colors? The idea would be to photograph the test pattern and then compare the results as displayed on the computer screen or printed to paper.

TIA,

Ken
 
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nickt

Senior Member
Maybe post up the problem photo with the green. The flash might be missing it if you are real close. Or the camera might be metering the whole scene and feels the need for less exposure, leaving the green looking black. You could try a few things... lighten the photo in your processing software or try putting your gun on a very dark background. These aren't the 'fix', its just to confirm that the green is underexposed. Either missed by the flash or just the way the scene got metered.
Try backing up just a few more inches to make sure the flash is hitting the subject, you have plenty of pixels to crop the final image down a little.
 
Dawg Pics

Dawg Pics

Senior Member
Are you using the built-in flash?
You are right about the 'Green Eye' correction in post. Some programs have a "pet eye" correction for the green tint.
I have a dog that has reduced pigmentation in one eye, so he has one "red eye" and one "green eye" when the flash reflects off his retinas. My cocker spaniel gets a kind of "amber eye" when the light hits her the right way.
 
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taylorkh

Senior Member
The forum ate my first attempt at a reply. Let me try again..

Thanks FredKingston,

The charts you linked will be very helpful. Even if my printer does not print them exactly true to color I am interested testing if the camera correctly displays what it sees. And yes, I will be moving to Manual mode once I get a handle on this camera.


Thanks nickt,

I do not think I was too close for the flash to not cover the subject. I did not see any shadows. As to you point about the background... I started with a light wood stool seat and then a light blue shop towel for the background. I just tried the carpet in my office. Low pile dark and light blue mix. The camera was set on closeup program, lens at 55, flash on and the distance about 2 feet. MUCH better. I can distinguish green, black and bare metal.

Finally, thanks Carolyn or Sue or Suzie-Q,

I have not found a pet eye correction on the camera. But then again there is a LOT I have not found on the camera. I will be using Gimp on Linux for my post processing (I do NOT run Windoze). If that does not have such a tool I imagine that someone has written one (it is open source) or perhaps I will write one - or not.

I bet your red and green dog is a big hit for Christmas time pictures :D Years ago the owner of a small business I frequented in Pennsylvania had a Husky sort of sled dog breed. It had one blue eye and one brown eye. I wonder how that would have photographed? I do recall that the dog was called "Retard." Not sure why. He was very friendly and seemed smart. Did look strange with the blue and brown eyes.

Thanks again to all,

Ken
 
Needa

Needa

Senior Member
Challenge Team
taylorkh said:
I have not found a pet eye correction on the camera. But then again there is a LOT I have not found on the camera. I will be using Gimp on Linux for my post processing (I do NOT run Windoze). If that does not have such a tool I imagine that someone has written one (it is open source) or perhaps I will write one - or not.



Ken
Click to expand...


The red eye reduction tool in Gimp is under filters, enhance, Red Eye reduction but you must select the area first. As for the dogs eyes just google it I'm sure someone has posted an how to. I shoot in raw and process using Darktable on Lunix.
 
T

taylorkh

Senior Member
Thanks Needa,

I will have to take a look at Darktable. I do not have a lot of experience with Gimp so it will be a learning process regardless of what program(s) I use.

Ken
 
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nickt

Senior Member
taylorkh said:
Thanks nickt,

I do not think I was too close for the flash to not cover the subject. I did not see any shadows. As to you point about the background... I started with a light wood stool seat and then a light blue shop towel for the background. I just tried the carpet in my office. Low pile dark and light blue mix. The camera was set on closeup program, lens at 55, flash on and the distance about 2 feet. MUCH better. I can distinguish green, black and bare metal.
Click to expand...
Ok, that sounds like a difficult to meter scene. That won't necessarily change moving off of the auto modes to the semi-auto modes. You could go with the lighter background. Or you could try changing your metering mode to center weighted or spot. This will adjust the exposure more for what is going on in the center of the scene. Matrix metering tries to take the whole scene into account and come what it THINKS you want. That could leave a dark object on a light background underexposed. Same for a light object on a dark background, that could over expose the light object. Another approach to this problem would be to dial in a little positive exposure compensation. Or, when you are ready, shoot manual. Different paths to the same end. If you mess with metering modes or exp comp, don't forget to put them back. We've all made that mistake.
 
Dawg Pics

Dawg Pics

Senior Member
I don't think the camera has "pet eye" correction. I can't remember now which processing software had that. Maybe a later version of "Elements."

I had a Red Husky with blue eyes. Loved that dog. Sure miss him talking to me.
 
A

aroy

Senior Member
taylorkh said:
Please pardon me if I should have posted this in the D3400 sub-forum but I suspect that it might be a generic issue. As I described in the new member introduction I have recently purchased a D3400 and am testing it by taking pictures of all sorts of stuff for my insurance inventory. A good workout for the camera. At the moment I am experimenting with the built in programs - not manual mode. As to my first "green" question...

I took a picture of a small handgun with a dark green plastic grip frame. I had the camera set to the closeup program with the flash on. The "kit" 18 - 55 lens is set to 55. The green appears BLACK both on the camera's screen and when I load it to my computer (Dell Ultrasharp monitor). If I back off the distance and the lens to say 55 it appears to be a little more green. However, I cannot get a green closeup with the actual focus area being about 8" x 10".

I turned the flash off and took the picture using the 4000K LED lighting in the room (from a tripod). This image does appear green - at least a lot better than with the flash.

My second green question... My living subject (victim) of the camera is my dog. Animals do not experience "red eye" but rather green eye. The camera's red eye retouch function does not recognize green eye so if till not of course correct it. The red eye reduction mode of the flash does seem to help so I guess that is the best I can do on the camera. Looks like post processing on the computer is the only real option to clean up green eye. Am I right?

And a third question if I may... Does someone know where I can obtain a "test pattern" so to speak with a range of colors? The idea would be to photograph the test pattern and then compare the results as displayed on the computer screen or printed to paper.

TIA,

Ken
Click to expand...

The above problem is generally encountered if you are shooting JPG, (may be you have set the picture control to Vivid or some other mode). The camera then interprets the colours, based on its internal algorithms. I suggest that you shoot RAW and then examine the images on your monitor. If you have never shot and processed RAW, I suggest that you download the Nikon Capture NX-D and use it to process your RAW images, at least initially. You have a host of controls for exposure, colour and white balance corrections.

As explained the "Red" or Green" cast in eyes depends on the pigments in the eyes. There are a lot of software which will correct the colour cast.

There are a lot of Printed Colour Charts available. You just shoot one at the start of a session and one at the end. Then dedicated software will set the colour profile based on the charts.
 
T

taylorkh

Senior Member
Thanks aroy,

I will try some other formats. I am just starting to explore the D3400. My old FG had a button for shooting a subject in the shadows with a bright background. I forget what it was called. I referred to it as the "cave" button. As in shooting a subject in a cave from the outside. It opened the aperture one stop above what the light meter called for to brighten the subject. I was skimming the manual for the D3400 last night and I came across a reference to something which sounded similar. I will have to search it out and give it a try.

Ken
 
A

aroy

Senior Member
taylorkh said:
Thanks aroy,

I will try some other formats. I am just starting to explore the D3400. My old FG had a button for shooting a subject in the shadows with a bright background. I forget what it was called. I referred to it as the "cave" button. As in shooting a subject in a cave from the outside. It opened the aperture one stop above what the light meter called for to brighten the subject. I was skimming the manual for the D3400 last night and I came across a reference to something which sounded similar. I will have to search it out and give it a try.

Ken
Click to expand...

Actually shooting in RAW with spot meter solves most of the problems. I regularly shoot in either harsh sunlight or indoors. In both the situations there is a wealth of information available in the shadows which are easily recovered if you shoot RAW - 12 bits of levels verses 8 bits in jpeg, that 4 bits extra gives you additional 16 levels of colour.

Today if you have adequate storage, both in camera - 32GB card or computer, there is no reason to shoot in RAW. The least processing to get jpeg fast is to batch export the RAW images to jpeg using Nikon View NX-i. I use Nikon Capture NX-D which gives me more than adequate processing flexibility.

I normally use Spot Metering as I have found that Matrix Metering has the problem of evening out the exposure and in case of majority background is bright and the main subject a bit dark. The camera under exposes, thus giving you dark green/red instead of normal colour. Any way even that can be rectified easily in post processing RAW images.

The camera has an exposure compensation button - "+-" at the top near the shutter button. You just press it and rotate the thumb wheel to change the exposure compensation.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
aroy said:
...

In both the situations there is a wealth of information available in the shadows which are easily recovered if you shoot RAW - 12 bits of levels verses 8 bits in jpeg, that 4 bits extra gives you additional 16 levels of colour.
Click to expand...
Actually 8-bit files can render up to 256 shades of color per color channel (red, green and blue) or just over 16.8 million shades of color. 12-bit raw files can render 4,096 shades per color channel, for slightly more than 68 million colors and 14-bit raw files can render just over 4.4 trillion shades of color.

A thorough explanation can be found here: The Benefits of Working With 16-bit Images in Photoshop
 
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